Four out of ten junior doctors are working on understaffed rotas, according to a poll out today.

The introduction of the European Working Time Directive cut the number of hours doctors can work to 48 per week.

The British Medical Association, which carried out the survey of more than 1,500 junior doctors, said hospitals are still struggling to cope six months after the EWTD came into force.

Dr Shree Datta, chair of the BMA’s junior doctor committee, said: “In August last year the Department of Heath declared that rota gap vacancies accounted for only two per cent of posts yet, six months on, our survey paints a very different picture.

“It is clear that it is an everyday experience for junior doctors to be working on inadequately-staffed rotas.